Friday, 15 April 2011

Police are seeking as many as three suspects on Montreal Island in connection with an extortion case "related possibly to street gangs," Sgt. Laurent Gingras of Montreal police said Thursday afternoon.

He spoke shortly after two men had been detained, with a considerable show of force, in connection with the same case.

The latter two were arrested at gunpoint about 12:50 p.m. by members of the Montreal police SWAT team, just east of the Montreal Children's Hospital on the western edge of the downtown core.

One man, age 20, and another male were taken into custody near the corner of Tupper and Sussex Sts., Gingras said: "The other one, I don't have his age."

The two were stepping out of a car when the SWAT members, clad in heavy body armour, swooped in to detain them, a witness recounted.

"They appeared not to be armed," Gingras said of the two.

The SWAT team was present "in sufficient numbers," Gingras said.

"When they come, they come in force," he replied when asked to be more specific.

"It's an operation that's still under way, so I can't really tell you anything more at this point," Gingras added, such as what charges the two men are expected to face.